Molly Downer
"And cull'd these fiery spirits from the world,
To outlook conquest and to win renown
Even in the jaws of danger and of death.
[Trumpet sounds]
What lusty trumpet thus doth summon us?"
-Lewis
Act 5, Scene 2
King John
Club tournaments are a-stir. Last weekend, Molly Downer won the Women's Singles Championship. And the team of Alex Pang and David Hemenway (Hemenway again? gasp) won the Men's Doubles against some tough opponents. Congratulations to the tournament winners and runners up and to all participants. Also, thanks to Alex Pang and Lauren Holleran for running the tournaments in a well-fed and expeditious manner. We'll get some pictures up soon. We have some great action shots, thanks to Ken Turnbull.
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There was some fantastic tennis played this weekend and congratulations go out to the team of David Hemenway & Alex Pang, who with exciting net play and some incredible points claimed the CTC 2010 Men's Doubles Club Championships. On the women's side, Molly Downer won the CTC 2010 Women's Singles Club Championships, having run through the field without dropping a set! Thanks to everyone for making it a fun weekend full of great tennis and sportsmanship. Now lest we lose momentum, let's gear up for the remaining club championships! Dates are as follows: MIXED DOUBLES CHAMPIONSHIPS: Saturday, September 25 and Sunday, September 26 WOMEN'S DOUBLES CHAMPIONSHIPS: Saturday, October 2 and Sunday, October 3 MEN'S SINGLES CHAMPIONSHIPS: Saturday, October 2 and Sunday, October 3 Sign up sheets are at the club or you can just shoot me an email at laurenholleran@mac.com. For doubles play, both players must be CTC members (waitlist members welcome). The format will be determined by the number of entrants but everyone will be guaranteed a minimum of two matches and as much food and drink as you can handle. Lauren Holleran |
Club member, Charles Ansbacher, died recently:
I was stunned to see this below "New England News" headline item in today's GLOBE, reporting that our close friend, Cambridge Tennis Club colleague, and masterful maestro cellist and distinguished international orchestral conductor, Charles Ansbacher, died at his Brattle St home yesterday. He was 67, much too young to be gone.
In case you hadn't heard of this already, thought you'd want to know. Needless to say, it's an enormous loss on many, many levels for our whole community-at-large.
Hard to believe it was only a few weeks ago when I'd spent an animated and joyful personal dinner evening with Charles, his wife Swanee Hunt, and four other dinner guests on the back patio deck of their house on Brattle, here in West Cambridge
. Here's a commemorative snap from the end of that supper gathering which Swanee sent me only three weeks ago. Not included in the photo is their pet African Gray parrot, who sat in with us and kept everyone thoroughly entertained during the meal. But here's Charles (on left, in the front) looking content, comfortable, happy, and, dare I say, almost robust. Yet, the tragic reality is that he wasn't and hadn't been in good health for a long time.
Privately and quietly, later that night, he told me that he knew all the many cure procedures for the brain tumor he'd been enduring throughout the past year had not been successful. He knew the end was near. Doctors had stopped any further treatments, in fact, and told him the best therapy would be to pursue as much musical activity as his energy levels would allow. And so, all this past summer, Charles had been directing yet another demanding weekly Landmarks orchestra concert series at the Hatch Shell (as usual, free to all concert goers), including a splendid presentation of all the Beethoven symphonies, knowing that his days were rapidly coming to an end. But, throughout the effort, he was feeling a great sense of satisfaction and peace, he said, and an extraordinary bond of love with his dear devoted wife and extended family.
However, the truth is, no one ever anticipated he'd be gone this abruptly. News of his passing has sent shock waves through the musical media. Ansbacher-led orchestral performances and special tributes galore are being broadcast thoughout the day on PBS classical music station 99.5 FM. Heart-felt condolences are pouring in from all over, both domestically and abroad. This was a truly beloved, warmly gracious and gifted, incredibly engaging and interesting master cellist, maestro orchestral director, and consummate classical music missionary, who never stopped giving of himself. He touched the lives of so many. His boundless generosity, freedom of spirit, and educational imprint on others is beyond measure. He was a dear, dear personal friend and a rare breed of gentle man, whom I shall miss beyond words. This loss to the Boston cultural landscape and international music community is incalcuable.
Over and out for now with a heavy, heavy heart,
Bob B
From Monday's GLOBE:
New England in brief/ September 13, 2010
Landmarks Orchestra founder dies
CAMBRIDGE
Charles Ansbacher, Boston Landmarks Orchestra founder and conductor, died yesterday at his home in Cambridge after a long illness, according to a report last night from the orchestra. He was 67. A Providence native, Ansbacher studied music at Brown University, the University of Cincinnati, and the Mozarteum University in Austria and performed internationally for much of his life. President Bill Clinton — who appointed Ansbacher’s wife, Swanee Hunt, to serve as US ambassador to Austria — called Ansbacher “the unofficial ambassador of America’s music.’’ Funeral services will be private and a memorial service and concert will take place at a later date.
Awright, aawright, Clijsters and Nadal: the newsroom staff owes Rick Rose not one, but two lunches.
At 8:00 a.m. the phone is always, always busy. The action at 8:00 for reservations is frantic. Please be kind to your friendly staff member who takes your reservation calls. Their ears are bleeding.
We seek contributions from members. Insights, jibes, cracks, questions, suggestions, remarks, jokes.
Craig Lambert wrote a must-read article for Harvard Magazine about Bruce Wright's take on the 'high set' stance and movement in tennis. Take a look: High Set The article is accompanied by a separate video demonstrating the technique. High Set Video Thanks, Craig, for sending this nifty technical riff along to us.
The book? The club directory should be in your hand, always, but the website has much of this year's info.
We are going to try out a new feature on the newspage. Let's call it The Book Blurb. The Blurb will note books not necessarily about tennis, but authored by CTC members. So, if you members have recently, or maybe not so recently, written a book that you'd like blurbed, please let us know.
Let's start with:
Our newest book to be blurbed is: William P. Homans, Jr., A Life in Court, by Mark S. Brodin. Bill Homans was a long time member of the club with "a storied legal career." A lot of folks at the club knew and liked Bill. He could tell a story or two, couldn't he?
We want to mention New Classic American Houses, a book by Dan Cooper about the architecture of Albert, Righter, and our own John Tittmann. "New Classic American Houses is an architectural page-turner brimming with creative interpretations of traditional forms."
Hot off the presses, a new book by Faith Moore, Celebrating a Life, Planning Memorial Services and Other Creative Remembrances. "Celebrating a Life" provides the ideas, inspiration, and how-to advice needed for creating a meaningful memorial service. Light-hearted but sensitive, this thoughtful guide covers it all."
While We Were Sleeping by David Hemenway.
"This book powerfully illuminates how public health works with more than sixty success stories drawn from the area of injury and violence prevention."
The Parents We Mean To Be: How Well-Intentioned Adults Undermine Children's Moral and Emotional Development by Rick Weissbourd.
The New Yorker review said, "In this ardent and persuasive inquiry, Weissbourd, a Harvard psychologist, warns that 'happiness-besotted' parents do children a disservice by emphasizing personal fulfillment over empathy."
Inside Urban Charter Schools: Promising Practices and Strategies in Five High-Performing Schools by Kay Merseth "an inspirational and practical how-to guide for school reformers."
The club directory for 2010 should be in your hands or by your side all day, every day. But, should something untoward befall you and the directory isn't handy, all of this year's information is available on the website, except for membership information.
Some useful links:
Here's a link to the espn site, with pro ranking.
And a club member (let's call him Sol) suggested a link to the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, R.I. The site is rich.
We still have the tournament draws (from 2001 to 2004) available on-line (including all of the results), thanks to the Java Kid. We are re-locating the links, however.
"On the court, tennis players exchange not only ground strokes but lots of information. It's a richly interactive sport, both verbally and non-verbally. If players communicate clearly, simply, and consistently, the game will proceed more quickly, and with less fuss and misunderstanding. Here are a few guidelines that can make the game more fun, friendly, and fair for all...."
We've had some requests to run Craig Lambert's piece, sampled above, on Tennis Communication. (We'd better leave this link up on the newspage permanently.)
Take a look
The Yearbook link will take you to the last newspage from 2009. From there you can see the whole of the Persistent Archive of last year's news.
Website Note: The time and temperature icon below is a link to a Boston weather site.
Joe DeBassio, Webmaster.
Website Note II: The honey-comb icon is also a link. It takes the clicker to an archive of all the past news pages so that said clicker can read the news pages for the whole year (2009). The less-than link (<) next to the honeycomb icon will take clickers to the previous issue of this year's newspage.
This Version:
